Truth or Dare
by chaotizitaet
Summary: On the evening of the SeniorFarewellBall Hermione finds herself playing Truth or Dare with some other girls. Will it be Truth or Dare when it is her turn to choose? And what will she have to confess or do?


Titel: Truth or Dare

Pairing: HG x SS

Rating: PG-12

Summary: On the evening of the Senior-Farewell-Ball Hermione finds herself playing Truth or Dare with some other girls. Will it be Truth or Dare when it is her turn to choose? And what will she have to confess or do?

Disclaimer: All characters of the HP-universe don't belong to me, but to JKR. I only borrowed them and am earning no money with this story. 

Warning: This story is the result of perhaps a little bit too much 'Pride and Prejudice'

Beta: Not yet (volunteers welcome)

**Truth or Dare**

How could she ever have consented to such a stupidity? Sure enough, the senior-farewell-ball was plain boring, but... agree to play 'Truth or Dare' with Lavender, Parvati, Padma and Pansy? Just because their so called 'dates' for tonight had chosen to get themselves this drunk that they were by now snoring peacefully in a corner of the altered Great Hall?  
"Come now, Hermione, Truth or Dare?" Lavender snapped the brunette Gryffindor out of her thoughts.  
Ah, yes! That was the question, that had started the mental carrousel on first hand. Truth or Dare? Choose the one with the lesser possibility to embarrass and make a complete fool of you. If she picked Truth, they would most likely ask whether or not she and Ron had gone all the way. Something that, not matter whether they had or not, was none of the others' business. And especially as it involved Ron's privacy as well, she was not willing to tell. Picking Dare would most likely end up with kissing Pansy. Not something Hermione was too keen on to experience either, but... well, it was the lesser evil. "Dare", she finally replied.  
Lavender grinned mischievously. "Go and dance with Snape!" She demanded.   
Parvati and Padma gasped at the dare, whereas Pansy giggled sheepishly. Hermione shot Lavender an angry look before squaring her shoulders. This was nearly an impossible Dare! Not so much having to dance with the potions master, but convincing him into dancing with her. However, she had to try or else she would be stuck in Hogwarts for another fortnight, thanks to the spell, which was part of this game in the magical world and made you lose your magic if you refused a Dare or lied. And as the spell got more precise with the increasing knowledge of the students, you could be sure, that a spell a graduate cast would make sure that neither apparation, brooms, portkeys, floo, the barrier at King's Cross, the 'driving Knight' or any other way of transportation save muggle ones would work.

Hermione crossed the Great Hall to the table where Severus Snape was seated, wearing a look that told everyone that he didn't want to be there, let alone being spoken to.  
"Good evening, professor", she nevertheless addressed him.  
"Miss Granger." Came the indignant reply.  
"I have come to ask you if you'd be so kind as to dance with me."   
"Dance with you?" And he raised one eyebrow.  
If his tone was deliberately harsh, Hermione did not care, for she knew that this had nothing to do with her in particular but it's being his usual way. "Yes, dance with me, Sir. Or otherwise you will have the pleasure of my company for another fortnight." She smiled at him innocently.  
"And to what imbecility do I owe this 'request'?" Snape snarled.   
"Truth or Dare. And don't tell me, Sir, that a dance with you has never been picked as a Dare before." She was quite certain that it was not, more likely guessed that it was rather something like a tradition by now.  
"And what makes you think, that I'd be staying here, with you, in case I refuse to dance with you?" He asked with sarcastic sweetness.  
The smile was still there on Hermione's face but the innocence was gone. "As I am not allowed to stay at Hogwarts on my own, especially not without my magic, some other wizard or witch with authority in this building has to stay as well. And if it is due to your refusing to dance with me, that I lose my magic, I will make a special application to the headmaster to have you stay here with me. Oh, and yes, I'd even do this, if it meant my scrubbing cauldrons for the next two weeks."  
"So, you're not really requesting a dance, but demanding it?" he asked angrily. How did she, how did a student, dare to talk to him like that?  
"It is not me demanding the dance, but Miss Brown. I only stated the consequences if you refuse, Sir." Hermione corrected her soon-to-be-ex-teacher.  
"Except for the threat", he muttered, but she still heard him.  
"Well, I have no wish to lose my magic, Sir..."  
"Fine", he sighed. "Seems as if I have no other choice", and he got himself up from his seat. "I do hope, Miss Granger, you know how to dance a minuet."  
Taken by surprise, she looked at him. "A minuet?"  
"A minuet. If I do have to dance at all, I pick a minuet." And with this he moved to the band to place his request.  
Hermione shook her head with a slight smile. He was such an odd man. If Professor Snape had intended to ridicule her by insisting on a minuet, he was up for a surprise. For indeed she did know how to dance this old-fashioned dance. Her mom had a liking for costume-movies, and from the moment Hermione had been able to walk, she had been her mother's partner when it came to dancing a gigue, a volta, a quadrille, a minuet...

The band finished their song, and the introduction of the minuet was played. Suspiciously the students cleared the dance-floor.   
Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore, on hearing the first few notes, had turned delightedly to Minerva McGonagall. "Ah, my dear, a minuet." He addressed her with a beaming smile. "May I have the honour of taking you down that dance?"  
With a gracious nod the elderly witch accepted Dumbledore's offered hand and rose to be led by him onto the dance-floor.  
The other teachers followed their lead, and even Professor Binns asked Sibyll Trelawny to join him in this dance.  
"Miss Granger..." With a mocking almost-a-smile Severus bowed before the Gryffindor-girl.  
"Professor." And Hermione mimicked him by doing a graceful courtesy. Taking his arm, they took their place among the set.  
The music stroke up. To Snape's disbelieve and Hermione's satisfaction, she had not forgotten any of the stances, but moved graciously through the circles, parades, partings and reunions. Each of their steps was exactly in time with the music, in unexpected and, by the couple itself, undetected harmony.  
"Truth or dare again, Severus?" A merrily twinkling Dumbledore asked Professor Snape as he passed them with Professor McGonagall.  
Rolling his eyes, Snape nodded.  
"Well, my friend, at least for once your fair partner does not disgrace you, but is charming indeed." And Dumbledore made a slight bow in Hermione's direction.  
Hermione smiled at this short intercourse, which at least had told her, that she was not the first to dance with the potions master as a dare.  
As if his thoughts had taken the same direction, he suddenly thus addressed her: "I would not have expected you to be foolish enough to play truth or dare."  
Was he disappointed? Had he thought her above such childish games? Or was he simply mocking her? However, Hermione was not inclined to give him any satisfaction by appearing offended by his remark. "One has to make the most of everything, even though I have to admit, that playing truth or dare was not on top of my list of possible amusements for tonight. But as the students, for whom this ball is given, are expected to remain at least till well after midnight..."   
Here the dance parted them once more. On reuniting, Snape asked: "And what about dancing? I thought that was what a ball is supposed to be fore, and for what all this stirrup about finding a date is."   
Hermione cast a quick glance to the corner, where Ron, Draco, Seamus, Dean and Justin were lying intoxicated. "Well, as for the dates, Sir, they chose a different entertainment. And according dancing, I thought, that was what we are doing right now."  
"But it is not as if either of us is dancing with the other on our own free will..."  
"Frankly, Professor", Hermione replied quite merrily, "when I picked dare, I feared that I might have to kiss Pansy Parkinson. Therefore, if given the choice between Pansy and you, I'd gladly choose you."   
"How gratifying, Miss Granger", was the dry remark. "But I do hope, this referred to dancing with me rather than to kissing me."  
"Yes Sir, the latter would have been off limits. I insisted on having at least a few limiting rules."  
At which Snape only shook his head.  
The remainders of the dance was passed in silence, and when the music finally stopped, they parted with yet another perfectly graceful courtesy.  
"Thank you, Professor. Not only for going along with the dare, but for giving me the opportunity of dancing a minuet with a real partner for once instead of my mother." And with one last quick smile Hermione went back to her fellow-players.

"Wow, Hermione, that was awesome", Padma broke out and Parvati agreed. "I never would have thought that dancing with the greasy bat could look so cool, so harmoniously. As if you had never been doing anything else but dancing together."  
"But how does it come you knew the steps?" Lavender asked, never minding, that the intended embarrassment, which was part of the game, had failed completely.  
Hermione laughed. "My mom, she taught me these old dances, as my father has absolutely not talented for dancing."  
Meanwhile Pansy was looking rather dreamily across the Great Hall to where Severus Snape had resumed his seat. On perceiving this Hermione only shook her head. "Sorry, Pansy, but unless you know how to dance a minuet, I would not try to convince the professor of a dance with you. Besides, it would look as if we had no brains at all if we picked a dance with him a second time as dare."  
Well, Pansy still insisted on picking a dare, when Hermione chose her, but the Gryffindor refused to comply with the Slytherin's wishes, and instead dared her to kiss Lavender.


End file.
